Nate Stephens

Nate Stephens is a social change facilitator with more than 10 years of convening and coaching multi-stakeholder collaboratives and institutions shifting toward more equitable and sustainable strategies. His work focuses on building the civic infrastructure and capacities needed to meaningfully challenge power dynamics and bring diverse groups together around equitable outcomes. Nate has worked in diverse sectors and communities to develop participatory and inclusive processes, with experience convening networks and systems in communities across the US and in 15 countries in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. 

In his current practice, Stephens Collaborative Strategies LLC, Nate has facilitated collective impact initiatives in Virginia, Georgia, California, Guatemala, Kenya, and Djibouti and led strategic planning and vision setting events for clients including the Inter-American Development Bank, UN Population Fund, Results for America, Atlas Corps and The Nature Conservancy. In addition to his consulting work, he is a senior fellow at the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership and an adjunct professor of Facilitation in the Georgetown University School of Government Masters of Conflict Resolution program. He is an active member of the global UFacilitate community of facilitators and has facilitated more than 50 systems change workshops and trainings in English, Spanish, and French.

Prior to starting his consultancy Nate managed the Anchor Collaborative Network at The Democracy Collaborative, an international group of 25 cities and communities organizing new economy movements using the community wealth building framework. Before joining The Democracy Collaborative, Nate was a senior technical officer at Root Change, a DC-based NGO working to build systems change capacity and test community-led approaches in the international development sector. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, Nate co-founded a rural entrepreneurship training center and rabbit-raising cooperative with 300+ active members and more than 1,000 people trained in micro-enterprise development.

Nate has an MPA with a concentration in Power in Development Systems from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a BA in Anthropology/Sociology with a concentration in Educational Studies from Carleton College in Minnesota. He grew up on a cattle ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota where his passion for community power and creative problem solving began.